It's 'Highly Unlikely' That the Next Generation iPhone Will Feature NFC

AnandTech has taken a thorough look at 'iPhone 5' rumors and determined that it is highly unlikely that the next device will feature NFC.

Given the primarily metal backside of the new iPhone, it's highly unlikely that NFC is in the cards for this generation. In fact, given the very little space at top and bottom dedicated to those glass RF windows, you can almost entirely rule it out. NFC operates on the 13.56MHz ISM band, which has a relatively large wavelength, at 22.1 m. Making a traditional dipole antenna that radiates at all given the constraints of a smartphone package is thus a big challenge, considering that smartphones are maybe 5-inches tall at maximum, to say nothing of the supposed upcoming iPhone's longest linear dimension.

The Loop's Jim Dalrymple has voiced his support for this conclusion with a simple 'yep'.

AnandTech makes some other conclusion regarding the next iPhone indicating that it will likely feature a dual-core Cortex A9 SoC built on Samsung's 32nm LP (HK+MG) process with PowerVR SGX 543MP2 driving a taller 4-inch display. LTE and TD-SCDMA support will likely be powered by a Qualcomm MDM9x15.